A brand new contract by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality detailing circumstances to permit synagogues constructed on municipal land to proceed to perform, together with a dedication to offer non secular providers with out distinction of gender, is inflicting a political uproar.
“The synagogue shall present non secular providers to all residents of the ___ neighborhood and its instant environment, with out distinction of origin or gender,” reads a duplicate of the contract supplied to The Instances of Israel by a municipality spokesperson.
Based on their lawyer, a number of synagogues are anxious that signing the doc will expose them to the chance of being sued in the event that they preserve the standard Jewish prayer fashion, in line with which women and men pray individually, typically divided by a barrier generally known as a “mehitza,” and girls usually are not counted for the 10-worshiper quorum.
Legal professional David Shub spoke with The Instances of Israel over the cellphone after the controversy was first reported within the Hebrew information outlet Ynet on Sunday morning.
“If a synagogue indicators, tomorrow, somebody might go to the Excessive Court docket of Justice and sue them as a result of they don’t respect the contract,” he mentioned, noting that he represents eight synagogues, three of that are already preventing an eviction order in court docket after they refused to signal (Havurat Yisrael on Bar Kochba Avenue, Antopol Martyrs Synagogue on Saadia Gaon Avenue and Chayei Shalom on Bilu Avenue).
A number of spokespeople from the municipality described the case as a non-issue, reiterating that town doesn’t purpose to intervene with how synagogues conduct their providers.
The Orthodox group of Rosh Yehudi units up a makeshift barrier to divide between female and male worshipers, amongst protests, throughout a public prayer on Dizengoff Sq. for Yom Kippur. September 24, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/ Flash 90)
“The synagogues which can be at the moment in court docket usually are not refusing to signal due to this clause, however due to many different clauses that don’t work out for them,” a spokesperson for the municipality mentioned, including that the 2 sides are negotiating over the disagreements. “Additionally they point out this clause, however it’s not the actual problem.”
“The query of gender doesn’t concern mehitzas, however slightly circumstances through which, for instance, somebody says {that a} synagogue is just [open] to males,” she added. “Nobody is making an attempt to impose secularism on synagogues. This clause has the best regulation, stating that facilities dedicated to public use won’t discriminate towards folks. This implies, for instance, claiming that, due to their custom, somebody can not enter. Nobody is saying that mehitzas are forbidden.”
Shub, nonetheless, mentioned that when the ordinance is included within the contract, synagogues might nonetheless be sued by non-public residents who view their customs as discriminatory, whatever the municipality’s intentions.
Based on the lawyer, over 100 synagogues constructed on land owned by the municipality may very well be affected. He mentioned that along with the eight synagogues he already represents, he has had conversations in regards to the problem with a minimum of a dozen extra.
“A couple of century in the past, many synagogues have been in-built Tel Aviv,” Shub defined. “Typically the land was bought by non-public [entities] and given to town, and generally the land was allotted by town to a gaggle of worshipers for the aim of constructing a synagogue. Their founders invested the equal of right this moment’s thousands and thousands of shekels to construct massive and delightful synagogues.”
Based on Shub, whereas the latest efforts by the municipality to draft formal agreements after a long time of authorized vacuum make sense, the doc is problematic.
“The contract they despatched is horrible, stating that the synagogues belong to town, no rights for the homeowners, and town even has the appropriate to intervene with how prayers are performed,” Shub mentioned.
Whereas the clause doesn’t point out particular necessities stating that Orthodox traditions can’t be upheld, the synagogues concern that ultimately it might come to that.
Rising tensions
In recent times, Tel Aviv has skilled rising tensions stemming from the battle between its largely secular character and the wants of non secular life.
Gender-segregated prayers in public areas have been on the coronary heart of the controversy.
In September 2023, verbal confrontations erupted between worshipers and protesters at a public Yom Kippur prayer within the central Dizengoff Sq..
The gathering had change into an annual occasion in recent times, aimed by Orthodox organizers to encourage non-praying Jews again to custom. The organizers would arrange the house, together with a makeshift barrier to separate female and male worshipers.
The Orthodox group of Rosh Yehudi units up a makeshift barrier to divide between female and male worshipers, amid protests, throughout a public prayer on Dizengoff Sq. for Yom Kippur. September 24, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash 90)
Responding to Sunday’s Ynet report, a number of members of the federal government harshly criticized the Tel Aviv municipality.
Mayor Ron Huldai responded to the report and the criticism, stating that the contract had already been up to date to replicate the wants of the synagogues.
“There isn’t a foundation for the lies being unfold on-line right this moment in regards to the municipality supposedly threatening synagogues within the metropolis,” he wrote on X. “The clause in query — which was initially a part of a regular municipal allocation contract for public buildings and sparked this controversy — was modified and correctly regulated way back with town’s synagogue gabbaim [beadles], with understanding and cooperation from all events.”
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai casts his poll at a voting station on the morning of the Municipal Elections, in Tel Aviv, on February 27, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
The unique contract quoted by the Ynet report acknowledged that providers wanted to be supplied “with out distinction of religion or gender,” which appeared to indicate that additionally non-Jewish worshipers wanted to be admitted to the synagogues.
Within the up to date model obtained by The Instances of Israel, the phrase “religion” was changed by the phrase “origin,” which generally refers back to the Jewish ethnic origin of an individual.
Nonetheless, the reference to gender stays.
“Huldai has chosen to undertake a progressive agenda and combat towards Judaism,” Schooling Minister Yoav Kisch from Likud mentioned in an announcement. “The schooling system will work to strengthen Jewish and Zionist identification, regardless of the wrath of all of the ‘Huldaists’ on the market.”
“The Tel Aviv municipality has declared conflict on Judaism,” mentioned Nationwide Safety Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, chief of the far-right Otzma Yehudit occasion.
“I demand that the Tel Aviv municipality instantly halt this harmful and despicable transfer,” he added. “We won’t bow our heads, we won’t stay silent, and we won’t enable the Jewish state to be was a ‘state of all its residents’ on the backs of our synagogues.”
Park HaMesila in South Tel Aviv, on a Shabbat afternoon on April 19, 2025. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
MK Gilad Kariv, a member of the opposition occasion The Democrats, defended Tel Aviv’s determination.
“A whole bunch of Orthodox synagogues function in Tel Aviv,” he wrote on X. “A lot of them are in public buildings. Nobody has ever pressured a non-Orthodox fashion of prayer on them.”
He famous that synagogues, like another non-profit group in public property, are required to signal on allocation contracts that embrace common clauses about non-discrimination, saying that this occurs in different cities as nicely.
“What is occurring — and what ought to occur — is safety of native worshiper communities towards takeovers by exterior associations — Haredi and Hardali (ultra-Orthodox nationalist) — that attempt to dictate patterns of prayer and synagogue use, typically towards the need of neighborhood residents,” he added.
